Death and ethics collide at top of the world

``Six of us made it to the top, but only two came down.'' ...
Michael Groom pictured on K2.

May 27, 2006

The Briton left to die on Everest was said to be past saving,
writes Philip Cornford.

BY TORCHLIGHT in the darkness of a frozen night 300 metres below
the summit of Mount Everest, Australian Bob Killip thought he was
looking at the corpse of a Polish climber who had perished eight
years ago.

But it wasn't the dead Pole. It was the 34-year-old Briton David
Sharp, who was alive, although barely so.

"I didn't know it was David until I was on my way down [from the
summit]," said Killip, 52, who lives in Kangaroo Valley.

By then it was daylight, and he saw two figures stretched out on
their backs, side by side, beneath a low overhang. He did not
stop.

"David was not left to die," Killip said. "He was as good as
dead. Max [a Lebanese climber] and sherpas had spent an hour trying
to help him. But it was a hopeless situation. Some might judge it
as being callous, but at another level, it was just reality. There
were two bodies. Joining them wasn't going to help."

That day, May 15, 40 climbers passed Sharp, and all made the
same decision to leave him. No one knows when he died, but he died
alone. Three days later, climbers confirmed there were now two
bodies to pass on the way to the summit. That is the new
reality.

Whatever the situation, however, it is difficult not to wonder
about the morality of survival on Everest, with Sir Edmund Hillary,
one of the two men to first climb the world's highest mountain in
1953, expressing concern.

"I think the whole attitude to climbing Everest has become quite
horrifying," he said. "Human life is far more important than just
getting to the top of a mountain."

Killip was respectful, but disagreed. "I'm certain Sir Edmund
would feel differently if he had been there and seen the
situation," he said. "He would have understood."

There were other factors as well. Sharp paid $7500 to make a
solo assault without oxygen, the most dangerous and difficult way
to climb. The basic cost of a climb with sherpas and guides is
about $40,000 and can go as high as $90,000 a climber.

Sharp made unsuccessful solo attempts in 2003 and 2004. He had
no one to guide or help him for all three..

Perhaps his most serious miscalculation is that he had reached
the summit late the previous day and had to make his descent of the
precipitous north-east ridge in darkness in minus 40 degree cold,
an almost certain route to death.

Sharp descended about 250 metres before he sought the only
refuge available, the overhang at 8600 metres where, in 1998, the
Polish climber had also sought protection and died.

At some stage, he removed his headgear and unzipped his down
protective suit, symptoms of the fatal stages of hypothermia. His
arms and legs turned black with frostbite.

Killip, who made an unsuccessful attempt in 2001, and one of his
two guides were the two most experienced mountaineers among his
team of five other climbers, who included the New Zealander Mark
Inglis, 47, a double leg amputee. With eight sherpas, they set out
from their assault camp at 8400 metres at 11pm, passing the
overhang two hours later.

Killip reached the summit at 6.30am and although it was a clear
day with a light breeze it was "incredibly cold. I stayed only 10
minutes". On his descent, he became aware of the tragedy when he
listened on his radio to climbers trying to help Sharp.

Max spent an hour with the distressed climber. He tried to give
him oxygen, sacrificing his own attempt on the summit. Killip said:
"Max was crying, seeking advice on the radio" from the expedition
leader, Russell Bryce, an experienced New Zealander, and a doctor
at base camp.

"They told him there was nothing he could do," Killip said.

Sherpas from Bryce's Himalayan Expeditions and Arun Treks got
Sharp to his feet but he was unable to stand, even with support.
They, too, gave him oxygen, but it failed to revive him. In tears,
they left him.

Sharp was unable to walk or help himself. "If you can't walk,
you're finished," said Zac Zaharias, 49, who has led two assaults
on Everest, climbing past the dead Pole in 2001. "No one has been
carried off that ridge at that altitude - ever. It is not humanly
possible."

Below the overhang, there is a 500-metre drop on a 50 degree
slope over broken rock. At that altitude, even with breathing
equipment, it is deemed impossible to carry an 80-kilogram person,
even working in relays.

Killip said: "I feel distressed. But the truth is, I was in
difficulties myself. I couldn't have carried my best friend off
that mountain. I had frostbite; I had barely enough strength to get
myself down. When I got to David [on the descent], the issue had
been settled."

Since 1953, more than 2250 people, including 28 Australians,
have climbed Everest. It is estimated that 80 per cent of climbers
with professional guides reach the summit. The death toll is 187,
including five Australians.

The worst day on Everest was on May 10, 1996, when eight
climbers died on the South Col. More climbers would have perished
but for the courage and experience of a guide, Michael Groom, 47, a
Queenslander who has twice reached the Everest summit and climbed
the next five highest peaks.

"Six of us made it to the top, but only two came down - myself
and a Texan," Groom said.

Like Sharp, Groom's climbing team was caught high on the
mountain in darkness in minus 40 degrees, the situation made worse
by a blizzard that reduced visibility to zero. Four of the climbers
"just disappeared", Groom said. Their bodies were never found.

The Texan, Beck Weathers, became blind, so Groom roped himself
to him. A Japanese woman, Yasuko Namba, became exhausted when their
oxygen ran out, so he had to support her as they stumbled down the
mountain.

After several hours, they came across another team of climbers
trying to get down to their camp at 8000 metres, where they would
find shelter.

They were huddled together for warmth in the lee of a rock. One,
a woman, cried out: "Don't leave me. I don't want to die like
this."

There were too many to help. Groom made a decision.

"I was the strongest. I told them to wait, I would go for help."
He went on alone to 8000 metres, where a number of camps were
established. He told them the situation and passed out from
exhaustion, after 27 hours' exposure on Everest.

Rescue teams set out. Weathers survived, but the Japanese woman
died in the snow, along with three other climbers. Three other
Americans were brought to safety.

Groom is reluctant to make a judgement on the climbers leaving
Sharp to die. "I wasn't there; I don't know enough. It's something
they will have to live with." But he also said: "I feel bad about
not saving Yasuko."

Hungry mountain:

Five Australians are known to have died climbing Everest.

. 2001 Mark Auricht, 37, from Adelaide, dies of exposure
at high altitude.

. 1994 Michael Reinberger dies.

. 1984 Craig Nottle and Fred From lose their footing and
disappear down the Hornbein Couloir into Tibet.

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``Six of us made it to the top, but only two came down.'' ...
Michael Groom pictured on K2.